Contents

Background

The Talus Particle Accelerator at Antares has suffered a massive explosion following an attack from Shivan forces. Now pirates are on their way to assault the station and its survivors. Multiple GTI combat wings are on their way to assist, to evacuate sensitive cargo and survivors...

Walkthrough

Available ships: Ulysses, Apollo, Valkyrie, Hercules, Loki.

You have Alpha and Beta wings (4 fighters each of your own choosing), with Epsilon of Lokis as backup.

This mission requires you to be at two places simultaneously, so lower the difficulty level.

Call Epsilon wing in the instant the mission starts, you're going to need all the firepower you can get that can cover the far sides of the station.

Defending the escape pods should not be a problem, in fact, let one wing cover the GTC Leto, and set all other wings to engage the enemy. If all of your fighters are swift enough, they'll cover enough ground.

Expect to take on stolen Apollos and some Shivan fighters. When you need to identify which Kappa wing is legitimate, scan only one of each Kappa group. When you identify the fake, Delta wing of Medusa bombers will take care of them. Deal with all of the other hostiles until they get wasted.

After everything's over, two Fenris cruisers and Hercules fighters will arrive on the scene to relieve you. You can then return to base.

Developer Commentary

The fleet action in this mission's command briefing is a direct reference to the same event at the beginning of Echo Gate. Upon hearing of the call for voice acting for Echo Gate, I contacted Blaise Russel to see if that campaign and Silent Threat: Reborn could be made compatible, since ST:R was already compatible with Shrouding the Light. Remarkably, the only changes necessary were a slight adjustment of dates in the two timelines and a minor rewrite of this command briefing -- which had the happy side effect of adding depth and context to the "Shivan cleanup" story arc. This marks a rare instance of two campaign designers collaborating before the release of either campaign.

This mission was the most contentious of the campaign and subject to heavy internal debate. There were creative differences on how to enhance the original mission's containment breach; the version that was eventually released dismissed the ionized field element and put emphasis on the damage done to the facility, putting the Boadicea model to good use. An unreleased alternate version used an Arcadia installation as in the original, with a full nebula environment to simulate the ionized gas that interfered with sensors. TG Bromios gas miners would relieve the player to vacuum up the mess.

The Antares particle accelerator complex is responsible for creation of the GTM Helios according to its tech description, and the Antares Federation is mentioned in FreeSpace 2 as one of the major Terran blocs that seceded from the GTA following the Hades Rebellion.

Attentive players will spot the GTF Angel in use by the pirates, another mod inspired by the tech description for the GTF Valkyrie.

The alternate version was eventually released as one of four alternate missions in the ST:R Director's Cut. It makes the link to the Antares Federation more explicit and it takes a different approach with some of the gameplay mechanics. (It lacks the full nebula environment however.)